


Drop a Line

by beggar_always



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Missing Scene, phone conversation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 04:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5694817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beggar_always/pseuds/beggar_always
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur takes a moment to call up a friendly voice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drop a Line

**Author's Note:**

> So this has been languishing on my Google Drive since 2012. I'm pretty positive I meant it to be part of a larger fic, but I've since forgotten _which_ fic. Since I just watched _Inception_ for the first time in ages, figured I might as well dust it off and put it out there.
> 
> Set early in the movie, right before the helicopter on the roof.

Once his bags are packed and Arthur’s satisfied all evidence he was ever in the hotel room has been obliterated, he pulls out his cell phone and dials a well-memorized number. He checks the time while he waits for Eames to answer. Not much to spare - but he’ll take what he can get.

“Allo?” Eames’s tone is just a touch wary and Arthur smiles if only for the familiarity of it. _He_ may know the forger’s number by heart, but Arthur’s own digits change so often no caller ID in the world can keep up.

“Hey.” A classic opener Arthur likes to stick to.

“ _Arthur_ ,” Eames purrs, tone instantly warming. “I was starting to wonder if I should start to worry.” 

“Sorry,” Arthur says sincerely. “I’ve barely had a moment free to myself the past few days.”

“Try two weeks,” Eames mutters just loud enough Arthur knows he was meant to hear it. They don’t keep track of each other out of a sense of suspicion or jealousy - their relationship is rather open-ended to begin with. They keep track of each other because, in this business, it’s dangerous not to have someone you trust keeping track of you. In the digital age, backup from afar is still backup.

“Meet me in the States,” Arthur requests quietly of the man on the other end of the phone. He checks his watch again; very soon he’ll be getting the call that his and Cobb’s ride to the airport has arrived.

“Darling, you know I can’t,” Eames replies, sounding tired. They’ve had this conversation too many times before. “Come to Mombasa.” 

Arthur closes his eyes and takes a deep breath as quietly as he can manage. “Eames...” he whispers. The other man sighs.

“I know, love. You can’t either. We will eventually see each other again, yeah?”

Arthur’s chest aches, just slightly. It’s a lonely job, trying to keep track of Cobb and make sure the man’s self-destructive tendencies don’t actually succeed in self-destruction. He _misses_ Eames. More than he’ll ever admit to anybody. He misses Mal, too, but she’s gone...no matter what Cobb’s subconscious keeps throwing at him. Eames is just barely out of his reach...

There’s a beep across the line and Arthur knows it’ll be the pilot, letting him know their ride is on the roof.

“I have to go,” he tells Eames regretfully.

“You always do,” the forger says around another sigh. Eames ends the call for him.

With another breath, Arthur is calm, composed, and leaving his own hotel room to fetch Cobb.

/end


End file.
